Peyto Lake, Canada

    Located in Banff National Park. Canada's first national park Peyto Lake is one of the most wonderful lakes in the world. What makes it truly beautiful is its unique greenish-blue color, and placement in the Canadian Rockies. Named after trail guide Bill Peyto, this lake is located at a height of 1,860m.

    Entry Details: $9.80 adult, $8.30 senior, $4.90 youth, and $19.60 family.

    Best Time to Visit: July, August, and September

    Lake Argentino, Argentina

    Located in the Patagonian province in Argentina, the lake is truly beautiful. Surrounded by glaciers and snow-covered mountains, the lake presents visual delights like none other. With a maximum depth of 500 meters, it's the biggest freshwater lake in Argentina. The lake is famous for fishing.

    Entry Details: $15~$20, changes as per season, but entry for tourists above 70 years of age is always free.

    Best Time to Visit: December to March, and late November

    Lake Baikal, Russia

    Being the world's oldest and deepest lake, Baikal is about 395 meters long, 49 meters wide and 1,637meters deep. It holds more water than the Five Great Lakes of America combined, and is thus the largest freshwater lake globally. Located in the south Russian region of Siberia, a trip to view this lake is a trip of a lifetime!

    Entry Details: No Entrance fee here

    Best Time to Visit; March to April

    Lake Como, Italy

    Considered one of the most beautiful lakes in Europe, Lake Como has attracted tourists since Roman times. Located in Lombardy, Como is one of the deepest lakes in Europe. Surrounded by vil1as and palaces, this lake has attracted some of the wealthiest. Today, many celebrities(名人) have houses here. Here you can enjoy water sports, take a flight over the lake, or try skiing during the winters-every tourist has something he's going to like!

Entry Details: Free

    Best Time to Visit: July and September

    The discussion on renewable energy has been going on for at least a decade and people have relied on fossil fuels almost entirely for more than a century. However, the situation when fossil fuels were the most efficient and the cheapest source of energy has been left far in the past. Many countries such as Germany and Sweden have already made significant efforts to fix this situation, employing numerous power plants working on the renewable resources of energy. The most effective among these resources is geothermal（地热的）energy.

    Geothermal energy does not depend on the world's economic and political situation as strongly as fossil fuels do. Besides, extracting（提炼）fossil fuels adds to the price of energy produced from them. Therefore, geothermal energy is much cheaper than traditional ones, saving up to 80% of the costs over fossil fuels.

    Being a renewable resource, geothermal energy produces less waste and pollution than traditional energy sources. In geothermal systems, carbon dioxide makes up about 10% of air produced. Overall, in order to produce the electricity that can be used for one hour, the geothermal systems produce 0.1 pound of carbon dioxide and other harmful gases. For a comparison, a power plant producing from gas produces up to 2 pounds of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, and those power plants that work on coal（煤）produce an astonishing 3.6 pounds of greenhouse gases.

    Low costs is another reason why using geothermal power plants should be the first choice for many countries. Geothermal heat systems require 25% to 50% less energy for work compared with the traditional systems for heating or cooling. Besides, geothermal equipment is less big: due to the very nature of geothermal energy, geothermal power plants have only a few moving parts, all of which can be easily sheltered inside a relatively small building. What's more, the life span of geothermal equipment is rather long. All these make geothermal power stations easy to build and keep.

    Personal computers and the Internet give people new choices about how to spend their time.

    Some may use this freedom to share less time with certain friends or family members, but new technology will also let them stay in closer touch with those they care most about. I know this from personal experience.

    E-mail makes it easy to work at home, which is where I now spend most weekends and evenings. My working hours aren't necessarily much shorter than they once were but I spend fewer of them at the office. This lets me share more time with my young daughter than I might have if she'd been born before electronic mail became such a practical tool.

    The Internet also makes it easy to share thoughts with a group of friends. Say you do something fun, see a great movie perhaps-and there are four or five friends who might want to hear about it. If you call each one, you may tire of telling the story.

    With E-mail, you just write one note about your experience, at your convenience, and address it to all the friends you think might be interested. They can read your message when they have time, and read only as much as they want to. They can reply at their convenience, and you can read what they have to say at your convenience.

    E-mail is also an inexpensive way stay in close touch with people who live far away. More than a few parents use E-mail to keep in touch, even daily touch, with their children off at college.

    We just have to keep in mind that computers and the Internet offer another way of staying in touch. They don't take the place of any of the old ways.

    Beyoncé Knowles can do something that many humans struggle with: sing and dance at the same time. But, it turns out this great ability is not unique to humans. The superb lyrebird, already known to be a gifted singer, can perform coordinated(协调的)song­and­dance routines(一套舞蹈动作)that put most humans to shame.

    The superb lyrebird is one of only two lyrebird species living in Australia, the other named Albert's lyrebird. Male lyrebirds have tails in the shape of an ancient musical instrument when spread out. Like most animals with beautiful body parts, the males use their tails to attract females. Each one sets up a small mound(小丘)on the forest floor, where he walks around proudly and sings. He also shows his tail by holding it over his head.

    Lyrebirds are gifted mimics(模仿者), so their songs combine their own calls, the songs of other species, and sounds they have heard in the forest. That would be enough showing off for other animals, but male superb lyrebirds also dance.

    Anastasia Dalziell of the Australian National University in Canberra filmed 12 lyrebirds in the wild. She found that males only danced during four song types, and that each song type was accompanied by a specific move. “Lyrebirds match different dance styles to different types of songs, ”she says. For example, when the male sang a series of rapid notes he also stepped to the side and held his tail wide. Another song type was accompanied by jumping and moving up and down, with the tail held narrow.

    “Our results suggest that the coordination between song and dance—like movements we see in humans can occur in other animals,” says Dalziell. Female lyrebirds might prefer males that are better at coordinating song and dance, although there is no evidence of that yet.

Vancouver Tours

    Vancouver Stanley Park Tour

    If you want to see the major sights in Vancouver and come home with amazing photographs, this 3-hour photography tour is the way to go. Walk through Vancouver's top sightseeing locations; get guidance on photography basics and find the best spots to photograph the city. From Stanley Park's totem poles and old-growth trees to the most popular beaches and dining spots, you leave with beautiful mementos of the city.

    Historical Chinatown Walking Tour

    Explore the colorful past of Canada's oldest Chinatown, in Victoria, British Columbia. This guided walking tour will lead you through the streets and storied allies of the historic neighborhood, as your guide tells you the interesting, sometimes sad tales of the people who helped build the city and shape Canada as well as modem China.

    Small Group Sea to Sky Tour

    The Sea to Sky Highway is one of the world's most beautiful and celebrated roadways. You don't have to take your eyes off the scenery on this small group tour because someone else is doing the driving. Tour stops include a short hike to impressive Shannon Falls, the gorgeous Sea to Sky gondola, and award-winning Britannia Mine Museum.

    Eagle Viewing River Float Tour

    Dress warmly under a blanket with a cup of hot chocolate for a winter float on the river. The area is the winter habitat of bald eagles, and this trip gives you the opportunity to learn about the birds as you float through their area. After the boat ride, return to dry land just in time for a free, hearty meal before heading back to Vancouver.

    My favorite book, The Secret by Rhonda Byrne, talks about a formula called "SFF" which stands for "stopping finding faults". I used to be a critical person and tried to find faults. I guess I somehow inherited this character from my father. Actually, many good qualities of my father are worth admiring except this.

    My father is the person who constantly looks for mistakes in other people and he thinks no one is perfect in the world. His character created a negative atmosphere in my family. I was the same as my father, so I often felt angry, disappointed, depressed, and lonely in school.

    After I had read my favorite book I began to seek "good things" in other people. It has completely changed my life. Now I feel happier, I have more friends, I have more trust in people, and I realize everyone has their own strength! Another important lesson I got from this book is that I should always behave myself in a positive manner. Let's admit that we sometimes complain about our situation. That's not good. "Believe it or not, people don't like to listen to negative opinions."

    One more valuable lesson I got from the book is that I should be a good listener. When I was younger, I only wanted people to pay whole attention to my words so that I could show them how important I was. I was very proud and would show off my achievements in school without considering others' feeling. I had very few friends and most people considered me as an "arrogant" person. Now, I find it much easier to make friends after making some changes!